﻿MAMEIS

Annual Conference

MAMEIS 2015 Annual Conference

Middle East & Islamic Studies, University of Louisville

"Islamic Modernities: Time and Space"

April 16th-17th, 2015 - University of Louisville, Louisville, KY

Keynote Speaker: Asma Afsaruddin

Chair and Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Indiana University

The Midwest Association for Middle East and Islamic Studies and University of Louisville's Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies program are pleased to present this joint conference on Islamic Modernities: Time and Space at the University of Louisville, April 16th-17th, 2015.

Modernity serves as a dynamic lens for viewing a wide range of transformations in Middle Eastern and Islamic societies, even as no generally accepted definition of modernity has yet emerged. The scholarly discussion on modernity has broadened to view this as not only a global, structural transformation centered on Europe, but a process that has created "many modernities," each with its own local vernacular form. Moreover, modernity has been recognized as not only a temporal period, but also a process manifested in spatial relationships that shape, and are shaped by, historical agents. This conference will highlight current research related to theorizing and applying the concept of "modernity" to Middle East and Islamic studies in a broad, interdisciplinary manner.

5:00-6:30 Keynote LectureChao AuditoriumChair: Maryam Moazzen, Assistant Professor, University of LouisvilleAsma Afsaruddin, Chair and Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Indiana University Islam and the Challenge of Modernity

Friday, April 17th

9:00-11:45 Session II: Intellectual HistoryEkstrom W104Chair: Grat Henry, Fons VitaeCoeli Fitzpatrick, Associate Professor, Grand Valley State UniversityAverroes in the Image of the Modern: How a Thinker is Shaped (and Misshaped) for the Legacy of Medieval IslamMaryam Moazzen, Assistant Professor, University of LouisvilleContesting Intellectual Modernity: The Curriculum of Religious Higher Learning in Qātār IranCompatibility of Science and Religion in the Modern World in the Context of Biological EvolutionMohamed Wajdi Ben Hammed, Ph.D. Student, University of Notre DameOn Societal Disintegration and the Rise of Antisocial Utopias in Mohammed Achaari's The Arch and the Butterfly

3:30- 5:45 Session IV: The Politics of Modernization in TurkeyHumanities RM 300Chair: Pamela Beattie, University of LouisvilleNathan Young, Ph.D. Student, Ohio State UniversityLoss and Reclamation: Economic Re-purposing of Village Traditions in Western TurkeyGul Aldikacti-Marshall, Associate Professor, University of LouisvilleGender Equality Policies and the Current Islamist Government in TurkeyEsma Erdogan Kilic, Ph.D. Student, Indiana University-BloomingtonPower Relations, Asabiyya and Islamic Tesettur Styles in Turkey